192 A COLLECTING TRIP 
Grand Hotel des Wagon-Lits. 
Pekin, May 29, 1907. 
Dear Fred : 
We are having such a trip and each place we see 
last we think the best, but, really, joking aside, you 
have no idea what an interesting city this is. The 
walls alone are a sight well worth coming to see; it 
seems almost a sacrilege to go through one of the old 
city gates in a modern American train, as we did. I 
asked our guide, whom we took here, if the emperor 
had ever been in a train; at first he said, ‘‘Oh, no,”’ 
and then he added that in the summer palace he has a 
small court yard and a miniature train and tracks in 
it and that he rides about in the train. Likewise on 
one of the lakes he has a steamboat which he enjoys, 
but the outside world does not know it. 
On Sunday, we went to the Temple of Heaven, 
where the most ancient religious observances of the 
Chinese people are still kept up. The ceremonies and 
sacrifices are most complicated. Each year on a ecer- 
tain date the emperor goes there in a sedan chair 
covered with yellow silk, the imperial color, and car- 
ried by thirty-two men; he is preceded by a band of 
musicians and followed by a retinue of princes; he 
prays to his ancestors and burns incense. The Hall of 
Abstinence is in the Temple of Heaven and here he 
remains for some time; his throne in this room is of 
superb carved wood, of the most intricate pattern, and 
a huge carved screen back of it. From here he goes 
to the Altar of Heaven, where he offers sacrifice. This 
is a round white marble terrace, three stories, with 
very handsome and beautiful carvings on it. The 
Temple of Heaven is only a short distance from the 
